Giovanni Battista Piranesi, The Drawbridge, c. 1749–50
From Carceri d'invenzione. Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via
Wikimedia Commons
The aim of this project is to provide an overview of some
of the most important critics of Enlightenment rationalism.
The essays on each thinker
are intended not merely to offer a discussion of that thinker, but
also to place him or her in the context of this larger stream of
anti-rationalist thought.
"Callahan and McIntyre have brought together a distinguished
and cosmopolitan array of contributors who have produced a
lively and provocative collection of essays exploring and
analysing the modern phenomenon of Enlightenment rationalism
whose distinguished critics range from the historically
important Edmund Burke, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Friedrich
Nietzsche, to our near contemporaries Hans-Georg Gadamer, Erii
Voegelin and Michael Oakeshott. The connecting and fascinating
thread that runs through the volume is a relentless critique of
a style of thinking that prioritises the pursuit of certainty,
and a blind belief in the powers of instrumental reason to
overcome all adversity."
David Boucher
Professor of Political Philosophy and International Relations
Cardiff University
"This is a remarkable and remarkably comprehensive collection
on thinkers who questioned enlightenment rationalism, both in
the nineteenth and twentieth century. The list is impressive:
Tocqueville, Kierkegaard, Burke, Nietzsche, Eliot, as well as
Oakeshott, Hayek, Alasdair MacIntyre, and a number of others
equally stellar, and equally deep and complex. The essays are
by accomplished scholars, and show that the opposition to
enlightenment rationalism was both diverse and strikingly
coherent, and a treasure trove for thinking beyond the
enlightenment. It will be especially valuable for those with
interests in one of these thinkers to see them in the context
of the larger fraternity to which they belong."
Stephen Turner
Distinguished University Professor
University of South Florida
"This volume could not have arrived at a better time. McIntyre
and Callahan have given us an excellent set of essays that
speaks directly to the fetishization of human reason. Each of
the thinkers examined reminds us of the fallibility of human
beings — a lesson we sorely need to revisit every generation or
so."
Richard Avramenko
Professor, Department of Political Science
Chair, Integrated Liberal Studies
Director, Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy
Editor-in-Chief, The Political Science Reviewer
University of Wisconsin-Madison
